Promotion of media and information literacy in order to improve the information culture of the society in the Republic of Kazakhstan

On 29 November 2016 Kazakhstan National Commission for UNESCO and ISESCO, the Association of libraries of universities of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kazakh National University named after Al-Farabi organized an international scientific-practical conference: Promotion of media and information literacy in order to improve the information culture of the society in Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference took place in the Library of KazNU.

Scientists, UNESCO Almaty, UNDPI in Republic of Kazakhstan, heads and staff of national and university libraries of Kazakhstan and representatives of well-known publishing houses and companies engaged in the development of software for libraries (EBSCO, IPRbooks et al.) attended the Conference.

The conference was devoted to the problems that have become increasingly more relevant in the modern world of the information risks, particularly the improvement of media and information literacy and media education in the population.

The conference addressed the following issues:

• the main goals and objectives of media education;

• the main subjects of media and information literacy;

• methods of measurement and evaluation of media education.

During the plenary meeting the model of media literacy in the new plan of 9 year study of Finnish school was presented by Katja Lehtisaari, researcher and lecturer at the University of Helsinki.

Also at the plenary session Petr Lapo, invited guest from Nazarbayev University, gave a presentation on the topic: "Media and Information Literacy: contemporary challenges for the library profession." He stressed the importance of raising society's culture through Media and Information Literacy, as well as the social role of libraries. Petr Lapo noted the importance of the raising qualification of librarians.

After the presentations a discussion was held. The main goals of the discussion were exchanging experiences among libraries and institutions of higher education in the formation of Media and Information literacy of the users of the library and students, as well as the exchange of recommendations on the promotion of Meia and Information Literacy in order to increase the information culture of the society in the Republic of Kazakhstan.